Agent offered 10 minutes for house viewing!

leypt1

Yes, lots of times when we were looking (up to May) we were offered 5 minutes!! And left to see a queue of people outside...

The thing is, with these places you'd have to fight for a viewing in the first place and so a second viewing was definitely not on the cards until after you'd had an offer accepted.

Sometimes we'd mention to the estate agent that we'd be emailing them some follow-up questions (they never actually knew the answers on the spot) and the answer would often be "we're going to best and final tomorrow", or "hurry as this place will be snapped up" etc. Who was buying these houses without looking at them for more than 5 minutes or asking any questions??

In our experience this applied to both pristine-looking houses and doer uppers. 

Really want to impress just how mad and demoralising house-hunting has been this last year. We're very happy to be progressing with a private sale - we'd been double booked for a viewing which we'd had to leap to get, and while we were sulking outside the neighbours popped out and gave us their details!

nimbo

I’ve had some like that. Agents have been lining up viewers too. No chance of second viewings and I’ve been sent o houses that already have three offers on them
 

they’ve been funny about me taking my mum as a second opinion (I need to know my mum can get up the status to use the bathroom). It’s made me so angry. I am honest about my position and I’d want a second viewing. Some agents have been great. One even put me off one on house as he’d been there and the stairs were steep - but recommended a different house. 

Others have been crap and driven me bonkers. 

It got to the point where I was taking my mum for as many viewings as she was free for and I’ve ended up offering after one viewing of the house I’m buying. But The seller still messed around and kept me hanging for other viewings booked. And I’m fairly sure the agents booked more in as the day moved form Tuesday to Wednesday to Thursday for an answer. I was mad but am now getting excited 

also had a viewing and second viewing of a house where the agent warned me I was only suppose to be 15 minutes but the sellers were talkers and I’d be there an hour. I was there an hour and ten and then an hour and fifteen with my mum. They did not stop talking. 🤣🤣 we’d figured out their ages. How long they had before they needed to pay of their endowment mortgage - houses they were viewing. 🤣🤣 it was great for knowing what was happening. 

lookstraightahead

Goodness, these agents will want everyone back when things hit reality again. They're not doing themselves, or vendors, any favours.

they are setting up a scene, a drama, to make everyone react quickly.

purplebutterfly

All our agent accompanied lockdown viewings were strictly limited to 15 minutes each with the option to then book a second viewing.  Luckily, I'm in an area where second (even third) viewings are usually possible because there is no way I could make such a huge decision based on a 15 minute whizz round! 

Viewings where the vendors were showing us round allowed us to stay longer.  In fact, for the house we are buying, our first viewing was an hour.

Keswick1uk

Could be a good idea.

But could be a ploy to minimise viewings and make EAs life easier or ensure someone he wants can get it without a bun fight on price.

lookstraightahead

I really can't imagine queuing up to view a house - it must have been awful. We've just bought in a popular area but to be honest we were treated normally, could stay as long as we liked, vendors weren't greedy, we got it under asking even though some had offered over asking. 

Can't wait for this bizarre situation to end. 

cymruchris

If it was a house I really, really wanted - then I'd have taken the 10 minutes to get a look around inside - that would have given you enough of a flavour to consider whether it was seriously worth pursuing - enough to go back to the agent and say - 'We've had our ten minutes - we are seriously interested in making an offer subject to a more detailed second viewing'. (They could of course decline your request for a second viewing - but at least you'd have a clearer picture of what you were dealing with)

okigen

Yes it happened to me twice, 10 minutes  along with multiple buyers in a queue. In one of them I actually booked in 30 min appointment and the EA simply sent an email confirming 10 mins instead, without even highlighting that the time  has changed. I only found out the reason when questioning about it directly. It turned out they lined up 3 buyers at the same time so each only has 10 mins.

Found it really irritating. To my great satisfaction, those properties stayed on the market for a long time, despite the long queue of buyers.

lookstraightahead

okigen said:

Yes it happened to me twice, 10 minutes  along with multiple buyers in a queue. In one of them I actually booked in 30 min appointment and the EA simply sent an email confirming 10 mins instead, without even highlighting that the time  has changed. I only found out the reason when questioning about it directly. It turned out they lined up 3 buyers at the same time so each only has 10 mins.

Found it really irritating. To my great satisfaction, those properties stayed on the market for a long time, despite the long queue of buyers.

This is a new marketing ploy. It reminds me of a market store where everyone gathered round to get the 'deal' of the day.

Doesn't surprise me that it stayed on the market. Glad it did.

AdrianC

The agent isn't on your side. Remember this.

The agent is employed by the vendor to sell the house as quickly as possible for as much as possible.

If they think there's enough demand waiting for it that they can get away with this kind of quick-in-and-out-then-sealed-bid, good luck to them. But remember it's not for YOUR benefit as a putative buyer...

If enough buyers decided not to play this game, then the agents wouldn't do it. But, so long as buyers DO willingly play it, they'll continue to do it.